MU's Buzz Williams matches wits with Butler's Brad Stevens

Marquette’s Buzz Williams, left, is known for working up a sweat while coaching. But he also knows when his team needs a toned-down approach. Butler’s Brad Stevens projects calmness on the sideline. The respected tactician has led the Bulldogs to two Final Fours. Credit: Michael Sears, Reuters

Lexington, Ky. - If it is true that teams take on the personality of their coaches, the Marquette-Butler matchup for the Sweet 16 is worth watching for that contrast alone.

Buzz Williams, master possum player and freewheeling Texan, is as sideline-animated as anyone in the college game.

Brad Stevens, who was in the button-down corporate world before coaching Butler to two Final Fours in four years, exudes serenity borne of intelligence.

"I'm not near the coach that Coach Stevens is," Williams tried to sell the gathered media Friday. "I'm not as calm.

"But I have great respect and admiration that he can operate like that. But that's not been my path. I would not have been admitted to the institution (DePauw) he graduated from. I wouldn't have been hired by the accounting firm that hired him."

True, Williams went to a junior college and did not play college basketball like Stevens. But when it comes to coaching the game, they are about as good as it gets on the college level.

Stevens has been the target of larger schools since taking the small, private Indianapolis school to elite status. He is sometimes mentioned as the logical heir to Mike Krzyzewski's kingdom at Duke. Certainly, Williams will again receive offers to leave when Marquette's season is over.

Stevens is known for keeping it together on the sideline, as he did Thursday when Bucknell made a 19-2 run against the Bulldogs.

"You never see him rattled," said Butler guard Rotnei Clarke. "He's calm out there and it carries over to us."

And if you're a Marquette fan, you are well aware of Williams' sideline antics.

"When you're in the game, you don't really know what's going on until after you see the videos and see him doing the splits in the air, kicking up his leg like dancers in Vegas," said center Chris Otule

"And then something funny about it is he also wears one of those Dri-Fits under his suit because he sweats so much. At the end of the game his Dri-Fit is like it actually played in the game because it's so sweaty. He's just a really energetic person. An honor to play for him."

Of course, Williams works his humble image as a means to cause others to underestimate him. And he was strangely calm in the final moments of the Davidson game, in which the Golden Eagles overcame a six-point deficit in the final 70 seconds to win Thursday, just as he was when Marquette beat St. John's in a similar way.

But that unruffled, Stevens-like part of Williams' personality is rarely mentioned.

"Here's why," Williams said. "Because perception in so many ways is reality. And the perception of me is I'm this emotionally high-strung savant. OK, that's fine, and parts of that are true.

"But when Vander Blue hit that shot (Thursday), when he hit that shot against St. John's, all I did was walk down the street and shake the coach's hand. That was it. Nobody said that because that's not the perception of me.

"I do think at times I act like a clown, but sometimes I'm a lot smarter than I act and I know how to play possum better than you do. I know when to be quiet and when to act stupid and when to act calm."

Such was the case against Davidson in an apparently hopeless game. In those last moments, Williams remained calm.

"That's the face (the players) needed to see and the voice they needed to hear," Williams said. "If I would have told them what I really wanted to tell them, we would have got beat by 16."

In the same way, Stevens goes out of character and occasionally erupts to get through to his players.

"It doesn't happen a lot," Butler guard Andrew Smith said. "So, he's able to get our attention when he's upset. And that really helps, I think."

Bottom line, both teams will be prepared Saturday night as well as any in the field.

SATURDAY

(3) Marquette

vs. (6) Butler

When: About 6:45 p.m.

Where:

Lexington, Ky.

TV: CBS (Ch. 58)

Radio: AM-540

About Michael Hunt

Michael Hunt is a former sports columnist and reporter for the Journal Sentinel.